SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - At least 26 states in the U.S. have either restricted or banned access to abortion following the Supreme Court's decision on Roe v. Wade. It's resulting in plenty of women to flock to states offering those services, including in San Diego.
"We've had an upswing in the numbers of patients that are coming from neighboring states, specifically Arizona,” said Dr. Jennefer Russo, Senior Medical Advisor for Planned Parenthood of Pacific Southwest.
Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest told ABC 10News there's been an 31 percent increase in the number of out-of-state patients from the week before the Supreme Court announcement to this week.
The organization also said the biggest increase is those patients from Arizona, which is a 967 percent increase.
"I think that's what we had been anticipating as we knew that Roe decision was coming. And we are ready and prepared for it. But, definitely as things change, we'll be adapting and there's a lot of unknown,” Russo said.
As things change, Russo said there was a concern people had about San Diegans asking for services would be impacted by the influx of out-of-state patients.
"Fortunately, we were very prepared for this. And so, we were able to rapidly increase the amount of services we were offering. So, our wait time for abortion appointments has not changed. And we are actually offering appointments more days of week now so that patients can get access,” Russo said.
Russo feels we're only at the tip of the iceberg when it comes the impacts of the Roe v. Wade decision.
"I think patients are very appreciative and they are very scared. It's very hard for them to know what will be criminalized, what's going to be legal,” Russo said.
"I think that we can anticipate that as these laws get passed and as existing laws that've been on the books for maybe centuries are put into place, we're going to see definitely a continued influx of people from other states."
Planned Parenthood clinics in Orange and San Bernardino Counties are reporting a 900 percent increase in out-of-state abortion patients.
